Chaotic World Book

At this time, the moon had passed its zenith, marking the second half of the night.

Previously, when Xia Chichi ascended to Tianya Island and the great battle began, it was also close to midnight. The battle concluded and shifted here during the day, and now it was midnight again. In reality, only a day and a night had passed, but it felt like a great many things had happened, almost as if experiencing the delusion of a world transformed beyond recognition.

The Divine had retreated, and the Heavenly List had fallen. Whether at sea or on land, the power dynamics were bound to change drastically. The Wang Family, the grassland, Penglai, the Sea Race—contemplating the outcomes was enough to give one a headache, so it was easier not to think too much about it.

The most noticeable change was that for the first time, she, Xia Chichi, could sit shoulder to shoulder with Zhao Changhe in front of the Sect Venerables and openly admire the moon.

The last time the two had behaved like a couple in love, they were in Kunlun, merely strolling down the street, having a bowl of wontons, and buying a gourd... That was already last year's news.

At other times, they never really spent quality time together. They only met incidentally due to events, and as soon as the events concluded, they went their separate ways without even a chance to stay an extra night; or they were surrounded by others, and their meetings were brief, without a moment to indulge in private affection.

Xia Chichi often thought to herself that among all his women, she must have been the one he spent the least time with in reality. If her time disguised as a man were not considered, that would certainly be the case...

Thus, whenever there was a chance, they always went straight to that sort of thing... In truth, due to her Cultivation Technique and the long-term use of the Bing Po weapon, she really didn't have much desire in that respect, and neither did Zhao Changhe. However, they always seemed to be forced by circumstances.

That's why she never regretted letting him break his restraints. Otherwise, on this long Worldly Society journey, she wouldn't have the right to compel him to remain alone.

Even if she was very jealous.

This was good, the two of them leaning on each other, watching the moon, with the cool night breeze and the fragrance of flowers everywhere. Without her saying anything, he would definitely not pursue just that sort of thing. That was never meant to be their main concern.

"Changhe, how long has it been since we first met?" Xia Chichi gazed at the moon and asked as if in a trance.

Zhao Changhe replied, "Exactly two years. Two years ago in October, I left... the Zhao Mansion, and now it's October again."

Xia Chichi was surprised, "I only remember that it was just the beginning of winter, and it was very cold when we reached Beimang. How can you remember the dates so clearly?"

Zhao Changhe smiled, "How could I forget the time when I met you?"

"Tch..." Xia Chichi didn't believe a single punctuation mark, "You, you've become bad, now your mouth is full of cheesy love lines that come out whenever you open your mouth. It's enough to be smooth-talking, but you can't even learn from those charming young nobles, to say some refined double entendres, only plain and simple..."

Zhao Changhe only laughed, "Afraid that's something I can't learn. I do have some poetry in me, it's just that whenever I need to use it, I can't call up a single line. It's all learned in vain."

"I don't need your recited poetry; save it for Tang Wanzhuang." Xia Chichi said leisurely, "Two years... it seems very fast actually. Some people go to the capital to take exams and are gone for two or three years. Looked at in this way, our separation hasn't been that long."

"Hmm..." Zhao Changhe thought to himself that these two years seemed short, but they felt richer than his previous twenty years of life.

His whole temperament had changed now; if he were to go back home, probably even his parents and old classmates wouldn't dare to recognize him.

As the saying goes, once you enter the Worldly Society, time urges you on. It is precisely so.

"Your rapid Cultivation, how much of it was for the sake of openly being together with me?" Xia Chichi preempted, "Don't you dare give me another cheesy love line. You were very dedicated in your Cultivation even when you thought I was a man, and I'm well aware that it doesn't have much to do with me."

Zhao Changhe thought for a moment. Of course, his diligent Cultivation first and foremost was to go home, or else to put it differently, he did not want to be a blind man's chess piece and wished to control his own destiny, like Xia Longyuan. However, to say there was no part of it for Xia Chichi would be a lie, and it was actually a significant part.

Who could bear it when their girlfriend was seized by a Great Demon and declared to be serving the Divine, directly frustrating their pair? If it were not for being unable to defeat the Vermilion Bird, he would have rebuked her right away.

In a way, one could say that the Vermilion Bird was a potential major boss of his Cultivation journey.

Thus, he said, "To be honest, at least fifty to sixty percent, I wanted to make it so that the Vermilion Bird Venerable couldn't stop you or me, to make her watch begrudgingly as I hold you in front of her."

"Giggle..." Laughter came from the pond, and the two looked up to see San Niang spread out in a star shape on a lotus leaf, sleeping soundly, even laughing in her dreams.

It was hard to tell whether she was more like a toad or a turtle.

Zhao Changhe and Xia Chichi both couldn't help but smile indulgently. Xia Chichi then said, "I think you can conquer the Venerables without your swords or blades, just use your spear, just like with this one."

Xia Chichi had never imagined that gaining the silent approval of the influential Xuanwu Venerable within the Sect could be through such a mode... The Venerable appeared fierce on the surface, but deep down she was quite timid...

Looking at the peculiar sleeping posture of the Venerable at this moment, Xia Chichi's expression contained a hint of amusement, "Hey, is the Venerable sleeping or Cultivating?"

Zhao Changhe replied, "I'm not sure, it seems that's how she Cultivates..."

"I never imagined the mysterious and dignified Xuanwu Master to be like this..."

Zhao Changhe candidly said, "When I first met her, she was quite enchanting and mysterious, and during battle, she was as dashing and formidable as Hongling... Now she's getting more and more like a turtle. It seems the difference between her public and private self is the most severe, I'm afraid she might be schizophrenic. I seem to recall she mentioned something about Soul Splitting Cultivation... Is that even reliable?"

"That's because she's in front of you." Xia Chichi sighed, "Perhaps only in front of you can she be her truest self."

Zhao Changhe said, "What about you? I don't even know which is the real you, the one who gets jealous or the one who winks at me to stop her."

"Of course, the jealousy is real; stopping her was for planning ahead. If I really offended her to death, our lives would become difficult later on... Eh, come to think of it, if I had genuinely driven her away, you would be unhappy too, right?"

"emmmm..."

"Now this is just perfect..." Xia Chichi said with a giggly smile, "She and I can cover for each other. In the future, the Vermilion Bird Venerable won't be able to catch me."

"Hee..." Laughter echoed again from the lotus leaves.

Zhao Changhe couldn't help but ask, "Are you awake?"

San Niang pretended to talk in her sleep, "I'm dreaming; carry on."

"No need to carry on," Xia Chichi said. "The Venerable is right, as nice as this place is and as much as I want to spend a few idle days here with Changhe, the reality is in front of us, and we really shouldn't stay too long... Now that I have roughly obtained what I am due, the only thing missing is the sedimentation of time, which is the same everywhere. If the Venerable's cultivation has also come to a pause, then it's time to prepare to leave."

"Whoosh!" San Niang, who claimed to be dreaming, suddenly appeared beside the two. "How do we get out?"

Xia Chichi slowly rose from Zhao Changhe's embrace and turned to look east.

As if in response to her movement, as she turned her head, the shape of the "Horn Star" from the Seven Dragon Constellations hazily penetrated through the treetops to the east.

San Niang felt a slight stir in her heart.

No wonder Chichi said she had a rough idea. She had indeed grasped its significance. This profound and subtle correspondence seemed almost as if the Azure Dragon had lifted its head.

"Let's go and have a look outside," Zhao Changhe also knew the significance of this place. Taking the two of them, he flew over the forest, heading straight for the boundary.

Reaching the spot where everyone had buried Hai Pinglan, they could clearly see the Dragon Star Constellation rising from the east. Its brightest star, the Heart Star, shone like the sun, rising slowly from below the sea level, mirroring the scene that Xia Longyuan had shown to Xia Chichi.

When the Dragon Star Constellation completely emerged from the sea, it was like a dragon diagonally leaping out from the abyss.

Zhao Changhe thought of Xia Longyuan's name, which was very fitting for this place. The blind fortune-teller's choice of people might well have contained this meaning... It's very possible that Xia Longyuan had also been here, hence his connection to the Azure Dragon, thus deceiving Chichi's mother with this very association.

That was no longer important.

What mattered was that at this moment, the alignment of the stars matched the sculpture in the pond, nine to four, possibly leaping from the abyss.

This process seemed very slow but was actually quite fast. As the three of them looked upward, they could distinctly see the entire Dragon Star Constellation emerging slowly from the water, climbing higher and higher. The radiance cast by the Heart Star shone past the dense forest, scattering light over the sea's surface, resulting in a shimmering ripple.

In the far-flung Heavenly Vault, there seemed to be a reflection of that light.

"Now is the time." When the Heart Star rose to their front, Xia Chichi quickly stretched out her hand, pressing it upon the dome of the sky.

The resonance with the meaning of the Azure Dragon seemed to have constructed a bridge between this place and the distant reflection, casting a beam of light that stretched from west to east, like a long rainbow.

"Changhe should know what to do, right?" Xia Chichi said quickly.

"Mhm." Zhao Changhe, with both hands holding the two, stepped directly onto the rainbow.

San Niang was astounded and stomped her foot.

The ground beneath her feet was clearly just illusory light; how could they be standing on it? Was this the result of the Light Manipulation brought by the Heavenly Book?

Looking up, the Dragon Star Constellation continued to rise, reaching its zenith, while the three of them, walking on the rainbow, were drawn along as the Rainbow Bridge shrank, getting closer to the projected spot in the sea, as if stepping on a rainbow to arrive there.

When they saw the location of the previous battle and the projection of the sculptures in the sea, the Dragon Star Constellation in the sky had just climbed to its peak. At that moment, its shape spanned east to west, overlooking the earth.

Nine to five, Flying Dragon in the Sky.

The Rainbow Bridge retracted to its end, and the three individuals plummeted straight down onto the sea surface, landing precisely on a piece of broken Dragon Skin. That was the body of the Flood Dragon formed by the Sea Emperor's self-destruction, bearing witness to the mess of yesterday's battle.

The eastern sky gradually lightened as the sun rose; the stars disappeared.

This day and night at Heavenly Peach Garden, were as if it had all been a dream, so abruptly returning to reality.

————

PS: Seeking support for monthly tickets~